Newbie to DONE4 - Itinerary valid?
 

Hi All

I live on the Gold Coast, Australia and am looking at flying my first DONE4. I plan to purchase the ticket out of AKL to take advantage of the favourable currency rate.

I'll be travelling within the States next year for conferences and wanted to see friends in London and Dublin too, so a DONE4 seemed the logical choice.

Any suggestions/improvements to the itinerary below are welcome.

Keep in mind that I'll be travelling with Mrs gcff and a 10 month old baby... so optimising mileage by going the 'long way round' isn't that important as I need to keep my sanity! :D

Also, what's the best way to make/pay for the booking? Just call QF NZ direct or go with an NZ TA?

AKL-ADL-BNE-MNL-DUB-LHR-LAS-LEX-FLL,TPA-BNE-AKL

The first 3 segments will be flown in Oct 06 with the main part of the itinerary in Feb/Mar 07, then the remaining BNE-AKL sector June 07. Using the OW planner it looks like I have 8 sectors in the US so I may need to add/purchase 2 additional sectors to my DONE4. I'm currently a QFF Gold.

Thanks
gcff

IMHO it would be best to buy with QF or even better AA American Airlines Inc, Travel Centre Ground Floor, Qantas House 191 Queen St Auckland Central Auckland Call Free 0800 887 997 (less fuel surcharges)

What are l you US segments ? It may be cheaper to buy seperate tickets for 2 segments direct wuith AA or some other airline

You have to show the connections for the DONEx routing. I haven't bothered to check the current timetable for operating routes, but you are booking something like AKL-ADL-BNE-MNL-HKG-LHR-DUB-LHR-ORD-LAS-ORD-LEX-DFW-FLL/TPA-DFW-LAX-BNE-AKL which comes to 17 sectors with 3 left out of the 20 limit. LHR-DUB-LHR is very cheap and doesn't have any D service, so might be better to buy that as a separate ticket, and use the 2 sectors for something nice (like LHR-DXB-LHR).

Exact routing (with connections) is...

AKL-ADL-BNE-MNL-HKG-LHR-DUB-LHR-LAX-LAS-ORD-LEX-DFW-FLL/TPA-DFW-LAX-BNE-AKL

Great idea re purchasing LHR-DUB or some internal US flight separately, thanks.

Why TPA-DFW-LAX, supposedly at the cost of a 7th [purchased] segment in NA, and not direct TPA-LAX?

Edited: oops, forget it, seasonal flight, not good for when you are flying.

How are you getting from Brisbane to Manila? On QF via Sydney? (or are you going to MEL?).

IIRC, you're only allowed 2 stopovers in the continent of origin - are ADL, BNE and then BNE again all stopovers?

Be careful about buying segments in the US - depending on how the itinerary works out, you may want to avoid having to buy a one-way segment (don't assume it's just half of a round trip fare ...), particularly if it involves DFW. Currently, cheapest one way fare on AA ORD-LEX is $151, for LEX-DFW it's $383.

tt7

Qantas fly Brisbane to Manila once weekly.

The outbound service departs Brisbane on Thursdays (QF 19 SYD-BNE-MNL). The inbound service arrives into Brisbane every Tuesday (QF 20 MNL-BNE-SYD).

It's possible to fly BNE-SYD-BNE on QF19/20; although QF 20 BNE-SYD has a nasty departure time of 5.05am (every Tuesday).

During the peak season Manila services were operated by 747-300s. Qantas has experienced a decrease in the number of PAX flying the route, so has reverted to a 767-300. I'm sure Qantas would like to upgrade some services to 747-300s during the peak season, but IIRC, severe capacity restrictions placed upon Qantas.

Cheers